thiebaud



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

B.---P.VTVHIEBAUD.

STREEI PAVEMENT.

Patented Jan. 9, 1894.

(No Mode1 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

- B. P. THIEBAUD. I

STREET-PAVEMENT. No. 512,569.- Patented Jan. 9, 1894 NAL Lmwuvwkma cam-Al".

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BEDFORD P. THIEBAUD, OF SPRINGFIELD, OHIO.

STREET-PAVEMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 512,569, dated January 9, 1894.

Application filed May 9, 1893- Serial No. 473,588- (No model.)

T0 at whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, BEDFORD P. THIEBAUD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Springfield, in the county of Clark and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Street-Pavements, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in street pavements and the essential object in view is to prevent the present serious difficulty experienced in practice in respect to the bricks or blocks of pavements working loose and rising up above the general plane of the pavement along each side of the rails.

The introduction of heavy street railway cars, as electric and cable cars has brought about, it is believed, the difficulty above referred to by reason of the great weight of such cars causing a depression of the rails as they pass over them, after which the rails spring upward, such vibration constantly occurring acting in some manner to cause, as experience is daily showing, the bricks employed in street paving or other paving blocks to work loose and rise up at the ends adjacent to the rails. This renders the surface uneven and permits water to pass down and to the foundation which is gradually undermined and destroyed in this manner. Briefly stated it is the object and design of my invention to prevent this raising of the paving blocks.

In' the accompanying. drawings on which like reference letters indicate corresponding parts: Figure 1, represents a cross section of a portion of a street, and a street railway rail with a cross tie and with my improvements, the latter in elevation; Fig. 2, a similar view showing another form of rail and my improvements modified to suit such rail; Fig. 3,- a horizontal sectional view on the line a; a: of Fig. 1; Fig. 4:, a plan view of Fig. 2 3 Fig. 5, a detail perspective view of a rail of another form, sometimes used, with my improvements adapted to it; Fig. 6, a view showing a modified form of key and recess; and Fig. 7, a view showing another modified form of key and recess.

The letter Adesignates a cross tie of a railway bed and the letter B the bed or foundation upon which a pavement is to be laid. These are of the ordinary kind and form no part of my invention. The same is true of the rail 0, and indeed of all the rails illustrated herein.

The term block or paving block, as used in this specification is to be understood as meaning paving bricks, paving stones and all'and any paving device of which the surface of the street is formed, by the use of a large number of them whatever be their material, artificial or natural and whatever be their shape or configuration.

The letter D designates a paving block, say for instance a brick of the kind used in paving. These blocks are formed with recesses E at their meeting ends or surfaces. I have shown these recesses of several forms, namely,

of V-shaped form in Figs. 1,2 and 6, and rectangular form in Fig. 7 and of dove tailed form in Fig. 6. The preferred form is that 'shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 6 because it is such that it does not tend to weaken the ends of the blocks, the angle serving as asupport for the corners of the blocks or that portion of them above and below the recess.

Now there are two things to be done to carry out my invention, namely the interlocking of the adjacent ends or adjacent ends and surfaces of the blocks by a separate key or instrument distinct from the blocks themselves, and insertible into the matching recesses; and secondly, the anchoring of the ends of the blocks adjacent to the rails by instrumentalities which may be applied to any and all forms of rails. These keys are designated F and they are of a cross section agreeing substantially with the opening formed by two adjacent notches or recesses. They are inserted into such openings either as the blocks are laid or after a row of blocks is laid. They may be inserted by a separate laborer following on behind the one who lays the blocks. It is preferred that the joint between the keys and the walls of the recesses shall be sufficiently loose to permit the tar or other binding material to work its way down and about the keys and into the joints below the keys. For the purposes of my invention there is a distinct and practical difference between the mere provision of an integral pro jection on a block which enters a mortise in the next block.

In order to rapidly lay paving blocks and in order not to incidentally scrape up any of the soft sand bed and carry the displaced sand up against the blocks already laid and between them and the one being laid, it is necessary that the surface of the blocks shall be entirely devoid of projections or excrescences for the manipulation necessary to lay blocks so constructed involves the disturbance, as above, of the foundation sand. This gets the blocks out of true and unknowingly the workman will loose the proper crown and the required pitch or plane of the pavement. With my blocks it can be laid by setting them downward and at the same time snugly against the preceding blocks already laid. When once down then the locking instrument, the key, is inserted. The material of the key may be like that of the block or may be any suitable composition or even of wood or iron. Thus it will be understood, as illustrated, I insert a key in the matching recesses of the adjacent ends of every two blocks. The blocks are therefore, locked together end to end.

In some instances it is desired to lock the sides of the blocks, one with the other,in addition to the interlocking devices referred to. That construction will be referred to farther on.

Referring now to anchoring the blocks against the rails it will be observed that I have illustrated several forms of devices.

In Figs. 1 and 3 theform shown consists of plates or strips G secured to cross ties, extended up into the space beneath the tread of the rails, and of longitudinal strips H secured to the plates. The plates may be attached to every cross-tie or to every second or third cross-tie. The form of notch in the blocks is the same at both ends so that the block will be perfectly symmetrical and uniform. The blocks laid next to the inside of the railneed to be enough lower than the tread of the rail to give room for the flange of the car Wheels, while the blocks laid next to the outside of the rail should be substantially flush with them. This is accomplished by making the strips G for the outside of the rail slightly longer than for those on the inside.

Another form of anchoring device is shown in Figs. 2 and 4 in which the old fiat rail is illustrated. This rail is usually laid upon a wooden bed or timber I. To this I secure the strip J, preferably formed of sheet metal, bent into angle shape and nailed or otherwise held to the bed. Here again the anchor for the outside is slightly higher than the anchor for the inside.

In Fig. 5 I have illustrated still another form of rail which is rapidly coming into use. My anchor for this form of rail has the same strip H, shown in Figs. 1 and 3, while the attaching stirrup is slightly different. This is shown at K, and consists of a piece of metal bent to form a hook L slipped under the rail. The plate K is bent again at N where the strip H is secured, the upper end of the plate resting against the under side of the tread of the rail. The blocks are fitted up to this anchor in the same manner as in the other figures. The form of rail in Fig. 5, however, does not require the blocks at one side to be lower than those on the other, and hence the anchors are in the same horizontal plane.

In practice the space between the web of the rails and in the adjacent ends of the blocks is usually filled in with cement of some form, as suggested in Fig. 5 at Q and in Fig. 1 at R.

It will thus be seen that whatever the form of the rail my anchor device is applicable to it; that the blocks are all of auniform shape, so that they can be manufactured without regard to the particularform of rail with which they may afterward happen to be used, and irrespective of which side of the rail they may be placed.

It has been found in practice that should the end of the blocks next to the rails beheld down, then the other ends rise up; therefore it is indispensable that both ends be firmly anchored. It will also be observed that the form of key shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 6, affords an inclined surface as well on their upper as on their lower sides. The advantage of these inclines is that they facilitate the descent of {)he tar or other filling poured between the ricks.

Having thus fully described my invention,

what I claim as new, Letters Patent, is-

1. An improvement in pavements, consisting of the combination with a plurality of blocks having recesses in their adjacent vertical faces, and a separate key insertible into matching recesses, of a railway rail and anchor devices secured adjacent thereto and extending into the recesses of the adjacent blocks.

2. An improvement in pavements, consisting of the combination with the railway rail and anchor devices, on each side thereof, one being in a lower plane than the other, and blocks having recesses which receive said anchor-devices, the difference in the elevation of the anchor-devices compensating for the depression of the blocks necessary to accommodatle the flanges of wheels traveling over said rai s.

3. An improvement in pavements, consisting of a rail and a road bed structure, of anchor devices for paving blocks constructed of a longitudinal piece separate from the rail and road bed, and secured to one of them and located in a plane below the top and above the bottom of the paving blocks in combinanation with such blocks having their ends fashioned to receive and engage with said anchor device.

4. An improvement in pavements consist and desire to secure by ing of the combination of a rail, and plates or In testimony whereof I affix my signature in strips constructed to detachably fit and clamp presence of two witnesses. the rail, and a longitudinal strip secured to said plates or strips and arranged to lie along BEDFORD THIEBAUD' side of the rail and in a plane below the top Witnesses:

of the paving blocks and above the bottom of OLIVER H. MILLER,

said blocks. W. M. MoNAIR. 

